Dwarf Fortress > DF Suggestions

Mechanized Bridges

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Exponent:
Connecting a bridge to a powered mechanism could make it raise/lower more quickly after pulling the lever, perhaps almost instantly.  The idea being that without mechinization, the raising/lowering process is primitive and slow and complicated (ignoring the fact that dwarf involvement still remains only a single pull of a lever), but with mechinization, it's simple and automated.  If possible, you could even change the Pull Lever job duration so that when pulling a lever for a normal bridge, the dwarf has to sit there a short bit before the job is completed (manual labor), but with a mechanized bridge, the dwarf can't hit the lever and run.  Granted, there would be complications with the lever being attached to multiple objects; do you sum the durations for all the objects, or choose the longest one, or the shortest one, or average them?  Could get messy, but perhaps not.The mechanical connection to the bridge would probably be required to be either a gear mechanism or horizontal axle to the side of the bridge where it is hinged.  If it is a retracting bridge, then I don't know.  Those tend to be rather magical devices anyway.  Perhaps those would require a gear mechanism, but at any location next to the bridge.With a horizontal axle
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[~~~]Or with a gear mechanism
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[~~~]Both would raise to the left <-.  And obviously the gear or axle would need to be properly powered.  Power requirements might be fixed, or might depend on the size, material, and/or length of the bridge.  (Length being important because long skinny bridges are harder to raise than wide short bridges of the same overall weight/density.)  Retracting bridges would probably have a fixed power requirement, though.

TurnpikeLad:
I'd rather that now mechanics are involved, there be a mechanical energy requirement for having a bridge that retracts or raises at all.  You can make exquisitely balanced bridges that retract if you only shift 100 pounds in some box somewhere, but you still need the energy to shift that crucial weight.

AlienChickenPie:
This is a good idea. Lever-pulling could translate to a certain number of mechanical power units per second (perhaps with Ironblood-level legendary dwarves seriously competing with windmills and waterwheels) and tasks like raising a bridge or a floodgate could have a certain mechanical cost tacked to them. Pulling the lever would harness the mechanical power of the dwarf and all the connected energy sources, and the dwarf would stop as soon as the work is done.
A feature like that would probably mean the end for wireless magic mechanisms, though, something that I wouldn't personally mourn.
The awesomeness of huge, busy machine rooms powering devious mechanical arrays trumps the convenience of easily placed mechanisms.

PTTG??:
I'd drink to that.

Wolfius:
At first I didn't think it too great an idea to extend to one-tile structures, like doors and floodgates, on account of the power system getting in the way or making seals impossible, but on review I can see ways to work around that.Can water flow through gearboxes? If so, a waterproof analog would be wanted, so you don't need six miles of axle to operate floodgates deep in your irrigation system.
Yes, I think it would be a good idea - certainly make mechanical power more useful; as is, most of my forts don't even use it, at all.

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